Appreciating Real Estate: PropTech Panel Appreciating Real Estate

Aaron Block co-founded and serves as Managing Partner of MetaProp, the New York-based venture capital firm focused on the PropTech industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp’s investment team has invested in 130+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages multiple funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors that represent a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 15+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market. Aaron oversees day-to-day management of the firm and, during his tenure, has spearheaded the launch of many industry firsts including the MetaProp Accelerator at Columbia University, NYC Real Estate Tech Week, MIPIM PropTech NYC, the Global PropTech Confidence Index, and PropTech Place.

Giri Devanur is the Founder and CEO of reAlpha, a cutting-edge technology company with a plan to empower everyone to invest in the $1.2 trillion short-term rental market. Prior to founding reAlpha, he served as the President and CEO of Ameri100 Inc. and scaled Ameri from $0 to $50M in revenue and completed the IPO on Nasdaq in under 4 years. Giri was awarded the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017 and authored a book titled “Nothing to Nasdaq”. Giri has more than two decades of experience in the information technology industry. He successfully founded WinHire Inc. and Ivega Corporation. Ivega merged with TCG in 2004, creating a 1,000+ person focused differentiator in the IT consulting space. Giri has an M.S. in Technology Management from Columbia University and a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Mysore, India. He also attended Executive Education programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School.

Kyle Waldrep is the Founder and CEO of Dottid, a commercial real estate (CRE) SAAS technology platform that provides a single location for brokers, landlords, and tenants to share information, work seamlessly throughout the leasing process, and ultimately, close deals faster and with greater efficiency. Kyle founded Dottid soon after graduating from Southern Methodist University when he realized that the CRE leasing process was highly antiquated and mired in administrative tasks that could be easily solved with the right technology. In just three years, Kyle has built a team of world-class software developers, technologists, and industry experts, all determined to develop the most effective way for the commercial real estate industry to conduct business. Dottid, a venture-backed startup, has raised almost $11MM from some of the most prominent leaders and advisors with unmatched CRE experience. In many ways, this team symbolizes the shift from the traditional CRE transactional model to the future of where the industry is headed.